How Genesis sculpted a Red Dot award winner from the inside out and rewrote what a luxury performance car can feel like.
There are awards, and then there are statements. When the Genesis GV60 Magma was handed the 2026 Red Dot Award for Product Design, it was iconic because the design world formally acknowledged something drivers already sensed: this car is different.
Genesis has built a consistent record at the world’s most demanding design competitions, and the Magma’s win underlines something its designers have maintained all along: that performance and elegance are not opposing forces – they are the same impulse, expressed differently.
In the fiercely contested “Cars and Motorcycles” category of one of the world’s most storied design competitions, the GV60 Magma stood apart. And to understand why, you must understand what Genesis was actually building when they created it.
The Magma program, named after the invisible, volatile energy churning beneath the earth’s crust, is Genesis’ vision for what happens when luxury refuses to sit still. The GV60 Magma is its very first production child: the opening statement in a high-performance chapter the Korean marque has been quietly building toward for years.
1. Exterior: Power that doesn’t need to shout
The GV60 Magma’s aesthetic philosophy is one of restrained menace. Rather than draping the car in the kind of wings and vents you’d normally associate with performance, Genesis chose a subtler language – one where every line and surface has a reason to exist beyond pure theatre.
The body sits wider and lower than the standard GV60, dropping the centre of gravity and giving the car a planted, coiled stance – like an athlete at rest. Up front, a widened air intake feeds the cooling system without resorting to visual aggression. Slender canards reduce front-end lift at speed, while a discreet winglet spoiler at the rear earns its keep in downforce rather than drama. Beneath the arches sit 21-inch forged wheels – lightweight, purpose-built, and quietly spectacular – shod in 275-section rubber that means business.
2. Interior: A cabin that holds you accountable
Step inside the Magma and the character shifts. The cabin is a considered blend of comfort and intent – somewhere between a grand tourer and a track-day companion. The centrepiece is a pair of ten-way power bucket seats, upholstered in a premium suede-like material that strikes the precise balance between cosseting and holding you firmly in place when the road turns interesting.
Double-diamond stitching runs throughout – available in Magma Orange or Ash White – a detail that somehow manages to feel both sporting and thoroughly refined. Black-finished switches, bezels, and door handles create a cohesive visual calm, while a 27-inch integrated OLED display sweeps across the dashboard like a horizon. When you press the dedicated Magma button on the steering wheel and activate Magma Mode, the cluster transforms: a focused three-circle layout surfaces only the data that matters at speed. It’s the kind of detail that makes you feel like the car is paying attention, too.
3) Performance: The numbers behind the feeling
None of this would mean much if the GV60 Magma failed to deliver on its promise, which it doesn’t.
The numbers position the GV60 Magma as the fastest car in Genesis’ history – a fact the brand wears with characteristic composure. These aren’t vanity figures bolted onto a luxury platform; they’re the result of a car engineered from the ground up to feel extraordinary to drive.
The GV60 Magma didn’t win a design award by looking like a performance car. It won by feeling like one – from every surface, in every detail, at any speed.
“Magma is always the superhero of Genesis – a bionic cocktail between the values of the original model, the donor vehicle, and this extra facet.”
– Luc Donckerwolke, Chief Creative Officer, Genesis
